Lhota was responding to an NBC 4 New York exposé on Richard Ranallo, a white MTA supervisor who dressed up for a 2013 Halloween party as a black lawn jockey — complete with a blue-and-white checked jockey uniform and cap and a railroad-style lantern.

Photos of the offensive costume soon emerged on Facebook, resulting in several fellow employees complaining to higher-ups, NBC reported.

Eight months later, Ranallo was promoted to a supervisory position at Metro-North, earning $246,255 last year according to seethroughny.net.

“It was a breakdown all the way,” Lhota said of the communications failure. “That culture needs to change.”

Still, Lhota concedes that Ranallo’s union contract may protect his job, which is supervising the electricians who maintain the railroad’s third rail.

“We may have restrictions on what we can do under the existing collective bargaining agreement,” Lhota told reporters after Wednesday’s meeting.

Meanwhile, two MTA whistleblowers are claiming that their own careers were put in jeopardy when they complained to higher-ups about Ranallo’s costume.

“Don’t feel that you guys, now or in the future, are entitled to an interview” for a promotion, one whistleblower, electrical foreman John Barrow, says Ranallo told him, according to NBC.

Ranallo suffered no repercussions besides his own bosses mandating he attend five days of sensitivity training and telling him to take the photos off Facebook, the network’s report said.

MTA President Catherine Rinaldi issued a letter to all Metro-North employees saying she found Ranallo’s costume “very troubling” and assuring staffers who come forward with accounts of bias and discrimination that they’ll be protected from retaliation.